Friday, February 05, 2010

George Washington's birthday is approaching and with it will come the attendant mythology, hatchet and cherry tree, wooden teeth, throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River - or the Rappahannock.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

In past years when I talked to American progressives about the growing media imbalance – as the Right gained dominance in books, magazines, newspapers, talk radio and cable TV – a typical response was, “well, the Left is stronger on the Internet.” But now even that advantage is disappearing, as should have been expected.

After waging an eight-year “dirty war” against the Taliban, the U.S. government is acknowledging that the “insurgent” enemy is part of the “fabric” of Afghan society and is encouraging low- and mid-level Taliban defectors to switch sides.

No one disputes that Jay Bybee's name is at the bottom of memos that were, and to some extent still are, treated as laws which legalized aggressive war at the pleasure of a President and a variety of acts of torture.

A long-awaited Justice Department watchdog report has backed off an earlier recommendation that two former senior officials – John Yoo and Jay Bybee – face disciplinary action for providing George W. Bush’s White House with legal advice that opened the door to torturing “war on terror” detainees, according to published reports.